Our Plans for Now

Having had a few days to rest, recover and review our trip south, we will take the rest of our time here to visit some of the lovely little harbors here in Penobscot Bay. There are lots of places to visit, and things to see. One of the schooner captains tells us that some fellow who had sailed all over the world claimed that Maine was one of the two best places to sail in the world (and that he didn't quite know what the other best place was, but that he was looking for it.)

Fuel Polishing to correct the engine troubles - Friday

We found a local marina with the equipment to clean out our fuel tank and fuel system. This meant two to three hours sitting on a dock further south waiting. We had the tank flushed, and all the old fuel which had turned orange with age and sludge removed. The machine took about four ounces of gooey looking stuff out of our tank, looking at the dregs of the process. After a filter change, we took on a whole tank of new diesel. We will need to change the fuel filters again after 12 engine hours, and that should be the end of that problem.

Of course, the engine could come up with something else to make trouble. Which is why I am putting a diesel engine course at a local trade school on my to do list before next season. If I am expecting to deal with the gizmo, I ought to have a good idea how it is supposed to work so I have a hope of figuring out why it is not. (Maybe my "twin cousin" will have some ideas. He works on the big oil field diesels.)

A concert with Gordon Bok - Friday

We lucked out in our timing. We had not thought we would be in town for the concert last night, but here we are. A fund raiser for the Friends of the Rockland Breakwater Lighthouse, folk music and sea songs. We had a grand time, and our friends from Rockport made it down, too. After the concert we wandered back north to the boat, and sat out in the cockpit eating our dinner. Cruising has its charms, too.

A visit to the American Eagle - Saturday

We stopped off for a few minutes to visit Captain John Foss and the American Eagle, in for their change over to the next cruise. Everyone scrubbing and washing things down to get the vessel ship shape. Nice to see John again, even for a few minutes. Something else I have added to our to do list is to take another trip on the American Eagle sometime soon. We may be able to take a short run next year as a way to get our sea legs before we head out.

"450 tins of corned beef"

Which refers to one of the long distance races where one of the boats had nothing for food but tins of corned beef (or was it corned beef hash?). The art of dealing with food aboard a sailboat is exactly that, an art. I am still working on it.


When provisioning for a voyage you have several things to consider - the number of people, the length of the trip, types of storage on the boat, ease of preparation and cleanup, ease of serving, and personal tastes. The general guideline for offshore runs is to estimate the length of the trip, then multiply by 2, plus a little for contingency. This results in three weeks worth of food for a run that should be 7-10 days if all goes well.


When I was stocking up for the run to Bermuda, I chose canned goods, mostly ready to eat soups. Since weight is not the issue (at least not in the same sense it would be if we were backpacking) and water is at something of premium, I thought meals we could just open and serve if need be would be a good choice. Now with the change in circumstances, we have enough soup to get us through our entire time here.

For offshore passages it can be important for the crew to have snacks between regular meals, and for many of us things that are sweet or crunchy become important. (After all, one can only eat so many soups.) A selection of crackers, individually wrapped chocolates, dried fruits and nuts help add a bit of variety to the day. The snack size zipper bag is a wonderful thing to have. I can pack up individual servings, which makes them readily available to eat, and also keeps down the chances that an entire box of crackers will get water soaked by being on deck.

In addition to the soups, we still have lots of dried fruit, some crackers, a few tins of kippered herring (which I like for breakfast) and a whole stack of fresh food handed on to us by another boat. They were headed home for a couple of weeks and could not keep the refrigerator running while they were away, so I gladly accepted - one egg, two packages of frozen chicken (little pieces, all cut up and ready to cook) , some sausage and many types of cheese. With the strawberries, blueberries and cold cuts that I have, we should be fine for food.